I changed Keyan22 -> Keyan222 because Keyan wasn't working at first, and since I couldn't find anything about why, I tested keyan222, which sadly worked, so I definitely can't now, wish there was a way to contact moderators for things like thisIn the original announcement of the new forums, KThxBaiNao did say we'd have to re-register, and he hoped nobody would steal someone else's name.Is the name really reserved? I thought it was first come first served (seeing as Fawn was available to me when I changed my username) I would have thought someone already had that username on the old forums. I've heard some conflicting views on this. Some are saying they have to hurry and register so their username won't be stolen, while others claim it's reserved.
It looks like they never posted anything, but the name is still reserved for them if they ever join these forums. You'll have to pick something else, in six months when you can change your name again.
However, when the forums finally opened, we didn't need to register, and instantly had our old names as soon as we logged in. So it seems they figured out how to copy the accounts over (without join date or post count, just the ID and name).
You're right that there was a user named Fawn on the old forums. I don't know why you were allowed to take the name. But I can't see any other reason why Keyan can't use his name. There's nobody on these new forums (yet) with that name.
That's pretty disappointing, I don't want Keyan222 as my name for 6 months, especially since I had keyan22 but changed to this from it as a test, I even looked for help beforehand and couldn't find out, hopefully I can ask a mod or something to change it back.Source
1. You can only change your display name to something that isn't already taken. You'll get an error message if you try to change and it's taken. .
2. You can only change your display name once every 6 months. This is mainly to prevent abuse of the system.
To find out whether a name is taken, go to the old forums advanced search page, and start typing the name you want in the "User Name" field. A drop-down will appear with all the registered users with names that start with whatever you typed.
Of course, with time, more and more people will register here that were never registered on the old forums, or people will change their names. To find out whether a name is actively in use on these forums, click on the envelope icon on the top right of your screen, select "new message", and type the name in the top box.
Doing the first option, I found out that there was a user named "Keyan" on the old forums. It looks like they never posted anything, but the name is still reserved for them if they ever join these forums. You'll have to pick something else, in six months when you can change your name again.